Challenge 2: Work on a farm for a day.

Yesterday morning we met a Uighur man named Alim at 8:00 AM in our hotel lobby. After we explained to him what we wanted to do, we got in a taxi and he literally rode around with his head out the window asking if anyone needed work. After a few minutes, he found a woman whose family has a grape farm and was happy to have two more strapping lads who would work for free.It was about 9:00 AM (Beijing time) when we started work and the sky was thankfully a little overcast to bring the temperature down slightly from the 41 C (105 F) high the day before. The work was physically demanding, but the pace was actually rather slow. Adrian spent the day crouched under the vines with the Uighar family, cutting bunches of grapes (and teaching them English!) while Albert found his true calling as a pack mule carrying the 5 kg (11 lbs) baskets of cut grapes to the packing ladies. The most difficult part of the ordeal was stooping under the grape vines to cut and carry grapes. The vineyard was clearly not designed for people as tall as us.It was truly a multi-ethnic experience with Uighurs speaking their own Turkic-based language in the field, Han Chinese speaking Mandarin at the packing area, and a Hui truck driver who could deal in both.Other excitement from the day included:

• Riding the tractor back to the farmers' home for a delicious home-cooked lunch of noodles and watermelon.

• The children running in terror from a scorpion.

• The "boss" from Hebei Province who purchased the day's 150 crates of grapes coming and criticizing everyone's work.

The day ended at 7:00 PM with the oldest brother of the farmer family suddenly challenging Albert to an arm wrestling match which then led to a chain reaction of various brothers arm wrestling each other and finally ended with Albert vs. Alim.  (By the way, Albert lost every match, not surprisingly.)We're both sore today as we roll in on the night train toward our next destination, Jiayuguan - the last outpost of the Great Wall of China.

Photos